Time The Printing Press example essay topic

638 words
In 1440 a man by the man of Johannes Gutenberg invented movable type, or as we know it, a printing press. Prior to 1440 everything read in Europe was copied by hand or copied from wooden blocks carved from hand. This was very expensive and time consuming. The only people who were literate were those of the church and a small percentage of nobility. Since the printing press came out, how would this effect European culture and the way things worked? The printing press had many effects on Europe.

Very few peasants could read and besides that there wasn't much to read but scriptures. The things that were being read were hand written and of course this took a long time and so not many people wanted to take the time to do it. Monks spent there days and nights copying and writing scriptures in solitude. At the time Latin was the only language the bible was written in, this was about to change.

The time the printing press was invented was the era of the Renaissance. The Renaissance era is known for inventions and art and new ideas. The printing press was just one of the many inventions that came out of the Renaissance era. I believe this to be one of the biggest inventions to come out around this time because it changed everything and the way we read now. I am sure that someone else later would have thought of this but for the time if brought on new ideas. Some of the ideas that came about were translating the Bible into a language that was common to the area.

Bibles could be printed out a lot faster and a lot cheaper than before. More and more people became educated because more and more things were available to the "common people". But after more Bibles were published problems occurred with that because people read them and had differences in beliefs. So getting to the point of new religions and new beliefs. As time passed by, the common people started to invent things of their own. People had time to create poetry and books.

If the printing press did not come out these works of literature would not have been published and recognized around the country. They would have been some how lost in history and never heard of if there were not copies. We would never have heard of the great Dante and other great writers of the Renaissance. By the 1500's the idea of the printing press spread all over Europe. The printing press became the biggest industry in Europe at the time. Some people believed that the printing press was a bad thing because it" vulgarized learning.

However, this was not the case. The printing press helped move along learning and the printing press gave the "common people" a chance to be educated. The printing press made it easier for the common people to get books because the printing press made books more common and less expensive. As my conclusion the printing press changed Europe's history. The printing press not only helped educate but it also had a lot to do with the reformation. The Reformation would not have spread like it did and because of the Europe would not have the same things as it does.

If it weren't for the printing press, we would still be reading things that were hand written or from wooden cut outs. A good thing about the printing is press it gave the idea of new technologies like a computer printer and without that, hey, I wouldn't be typing this report..